Replacing Overhead carpet strip on 1970 Burro

[JeremyHammons]

My wife and I just bought a 1970 Burro 13ft and we love it, my problem is that apparantly the last owner replaced the old carpet strip across the top of the roof with a new piece of carpet, 2 days after we got it, we opened it to find the carpet had fell to the ground so apparantly it was to heavy or the glue used was not strong enough. Do any of you have any ideas of what I can put up there to replace it (without using carpet). There is still alot of old glue and such that I probably won't be able to get off. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Frederick L. Simson]

Maybe the previous owner did not use the correct type of glue.

Link to Burro Assembly Manual PDF, scroll down to page 4

The older Burros used brown carpet, but I have seen that the newer Burros use a white vinyl covered foam assembly that looks like upholstery, with matching buttons (like what you'd find on sofa cushions) that blends well with the gelcoat of the fiberglass. Hopefully I can spark PER or GINA into giving you some pointers, and maybe pictures of their interiors....

[CindyL]

Our 1978 Burro did not have carpet. It had a rubberized covering. I am not sure it was the original covering though.
Sorry, we sold it, so I cannot check what it originally was.

CindyL

[georgia g]

We have installed carpeting. If you decide to reuse your existing carpet or new carpeting you will have good success with contact cement. Cement on the ceiling and cement on the carpet. It will almost dry but still be a little tacky but when you put into place it will hold for sure. georgia g

[Rusty01]

Jeremy,
When I redid mine I used 14" reflectix insulation (sp?)held up by 3m spray on adhesive. The reflectix comes in 14" wide rolls so you won't have to worry about the width, just the length. I covered that with kind of a medium weight polar fleece cut to fit the opening. It has a little bit of stretch to the fabric so it was easy to fit. I used off-white but it comes in a lot of colors. That is also held in place with the adhesive.

[Donna D.]

This picture from the Burro albums: Interior Pic shows carpet. But, I would think you could cover it with whatever you'd like. It's strictly to cover the seam. I remember from times past, someone had made a padded strip out of some sort of white vinyl or pleather and covered buttons. A bit of a retro look. It would just depend if you want that area to be very noticeable or not so noticeable.

[Gina D.]

My 13 footer had the carpet replaced with that stiff vinyl material often used in shower enclosures. It was cut in a consistent width, then was actually screwed into the inner shell using hi-lo style screws that were just long enough to bite, and finish washer underneath.

Another member here has a very nice wood strip up there, with wood trim. Your imagination is the limit on this. There are no rules!

Personally, I dislike the carpet, it is very distracting to me, but others like it.. do as you please and have fun!

[Per Walthinsen]

Jeremy,
This may not transfer well to your Burro, because the inner shells in the later ones like ours join together with the outer quite close to each other,

Our strip is only 8" wide. What they did was glass in a number of small plywood squares into the recess, then make the cover of a long strip of thin flexible plywood covered with a thin layer of batting or some sort of cushioning material, then wrapped this in white vinyl and stapled it to the plywood on the backside.

The whole strip is then screwed into these squares and the screws are covered with white snap-on plastic finishers (widely available).

There are some advantages to this: 1) You can remove and replace the whole thing in no time flat. 2) The plywood holds the shape well. 3) Access to wiring and whatever in the recess is easy, including drilling into the fiberglass inner shells to put in new wiring, coax for antennas, etc.

Because of these advantages you might consider changing from the original glued-on method to this later method, but the wider strip necessary may be a a problem. Maybe more plywood squares, using a double row of screws instead of a single row perhaps. Just leave enough room around the edges of the recess for wires.

[Raya]

My 13 footer had the carpet replaced with that stiff vinyl material often used in shower enclosures. It was cut in a consistent width, then was actually screwed into the inner shell using hi-lo style screws that were just long enough to bite, and finish washer underneath.

If you happen to have a photograph handy, I'd like to see it (but no biggie if you don't). I've seen a couple of photos of your Burro 13' here and there and thought it was really cute.

Also, what are "hi-lo" screws? (I'm guessing maybe something I already know, but by a different name...)

Raya

[Gina D.]

Hi Lo thread forming screws for plastics

I didn't take any real good pics of the installation, but here are a couple small ones that give you the idea

[Raya]

Thanks! Those are a new one on me - good to know about.

Raya